Thu Sep 24, 2:03 pm ETAPANKARA, Turkey – Osman Ertugrul Osmanoglu, the eldest member of the former Ottoman dynasty, has died, officials said Thursday. He was 97.

Osmanoglu died of kidney failure at an Istanbul hospital on Wednesday, the Culture Ministry said.

He was the last surviving grandson of an Ottoman sultan and regarded as the head of the living members of the dynasty.

Osmanoglu would eventually have become its sultan but for the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923 following the collapse of the Ottoman dynasty and the exile of its members to Europe.

Osmanoglu moved to New York City in 1933, and was married to Zeynep Tarzi, an exiled member of the Afghan royal family. He returned to Turkey in 1992 and was granted Turkish citizenship in 2004.

He was a descendant of Osman I, the Anatolian ruler who established the Ottoman Empire that eventually controlled parts of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and lasted about 600 years.

Osmanoglu was born in 1912. His grandfather, Abdul Hamid II, ruled from 1876 to 1909. In 1924, the royal family was expelled by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who led the revolution that deposed the family and founded the Turkish Republic.

Thu Sep 24, 2:03 pm ETAPANKARA, Turkey – Osman Ertugrul Osmanoglu, the eldest member of the former Ottoman dynasty, has died, officials said Thursday. He was 97.

Osmanoglu died of kidney failure at an Istanbul hospital on Wednesday, the Culture Ministry said.

He was the last surviving grandson of an Ottoman sultan and regarded as the head of the living members of the dynasty.

Osmanoglu would eventually have become its sultan but for the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923 following the collapse of the Ottoman dynasty and the exile of its members to Europe.

Osmanoglu moved to New York City in 1933, and was married to Zeynep Tarzi, an exiled member of the Afghan royal family. He returned to Turkey in 1992 and was granted Turkish citizenship in 2004.

He was a descendant of Osman I, the Anatolian ruler who established the Ottoman Empire that eventually controlled parts of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and lasted about 600 years.

Osmanoglu was born in 1912. His grandfather, Abdul Hamid II, ruled from 1876 to 1909. In 1924, the royal family was expelled by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who led the revolution that deposed the family and founded the Turkish Republic.

The Ottoman Empire ruled most of North Africa and the middle east for centuries - including Libya, where the Ottomans either ruled or oversaw puppet dynasties, like that of the Karamanlis, who were the first to declare war on the United States, which forced America to build a Navy and defend its merchant fleet from Barbary Pirates. The Americans fought Yousef Karamanli in two wars, and a century and a half later, in 1949, when the USS Spokane put into Tripoli, the mayor was Yousef Karamanli, a direct descendant of the pirate.

The Libyan museum at the old castle fort has many exhibits, some on the Ottoman period, but some that go back two and three thousand years, to Roman and pre-Roman eras.

Today, Turkey is becoming a major player in the region, as the young democracies of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and those still under revolt - Yeman, Bahrain and Syria look towards Turkey as a friend, ally and living example of a moderate and secular Islamic state and society that has learned to live with others.